Hot Topics:

One year, two awards -- Lowell native must be doing something right

By Katie Lannan, klannan@lowellsun.com

Updated:
02/01/2013 09:10:30 AM EST

The Washington, D.C., public-school system sees about 600 new first-year teachers annually. Each year, one is recognized for excellence and named the district's New Teacher of the Year in an awards ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in D.C..

For 2012, Lowell native and third-grade teacher Drew Gallagher took the title.

Gallagher, 23, the son of Lowell attorney and former School Committee member Michael Gallagher, started teaching at the Bruce-Monroe Elementary School in D.C. in the fall of 2011.

He's a corps member in Teach for America, or TFA, a national nonprofit agency that places high-achieving college graduates and aspiring teachers in under-resourced classrooms.

At Bruce-Monroe, 61 percent of students are English-language learners and many receive free or subsidized lunches.

In addition to receiving the New Teacher of the Year award, Gallagher earned a Rubenstein Award for Highly Effective Educators, a $5,000 prize for which he was eligible thanks to his score on the district's teacher-evaluation system.

Gallagher stayed after school one day last week to answer questions from The Sun over the phone -- a pop quiz on his accomplishments.

Q: How did you get this award?

A: I was nominated, and I had to then apply for it, really. I had to write a few essays and this and that. And then I was called on the phone at school one day.

Advertisement

While I am among 27 Rubenstein winners, I found out then that I alone am the New Teacher of the Year for D.C. Public Schools, which essentially means first year in the district. I guess that sets me by myself.

Q: Did you want to teach in D.C., or just end up there?

A: With TFA, you rank their 53 regions, from highly preferred to not preferred at all, and D.C. was my number-one choice.

Q: Why?

A: I wanted to be in a city. I knew I didn't want to do a rural experience, which a lot of TFA corps members do. And I wanted to be in setting where I felt empowered. There's no better place to feel empowered than your own nation's capital. And the District of Columbia had the second-lowest-performing district in the entire country, behind Detroit, of the major urban public-school systems. And I said, "That's completely ridiculous for the nation's capital. When change is being made here every day, why aren't they paying attention to the city itself?"

Q: What's your school like?

A: It's a bilingual school. I'm an English teacher, but it's a dual-language model. We have roughly two-thirds Hispanic, one-third African American. Roughly 86 percent of the student body is on free and reduced lunch. It's a high-poverty, under-resourced public school. It has everything in it.

Q: Is it challenging to teach in that type of environment?

A: Incredibly, incredibly. You're not just bringing kids into the classroom and teaching them math or reading or how to write an essay. You're helping them develop social skills that some have lacked or just haven't been able to develop. You're cuddling, you're comforting students that come from homes that are sometimes abusive. They come from nothing, some of these kids. The hardest part of teaching in an inner city is the range in academic levels. I teach 44 kids currently, and their academic levels go from reading at a kindergarten level to reading at a fifth-grade level.

Q: Have you always wanted to teach?

A: I knew I wanted to do some sort of community service, public service, upon graduation. My father has forever been involved in education and progressive social movements and had been on the local School Committee in Lowell years back. My grandmother was a grade-school teacher for 30-plus years. I knew that I wanted to do something to help people around me and give back everything I've been so fortunate to receive.

Q: Were you educated in Lowell?

A: I went to the Reilly Elementary School, and then Sullivan Middle School in Belvidere, and then on to Lawrence Academy in Groton and Bates College in Maine. From there, I was selected in to TFA and went through a rigorous institute in Philadelphia for five weeks.

Q: How did you get involved with Teach For America?

A: TFA kind of just fell into my lap, because I was sought out by recruiters who were on campus. The more I went through a two-and-a-half-month application process, the more I wanted to do it, to have a chance to close and eventually eliminate the achievement gap in our country that is so devastating. I got in and haven't looked back ever since. I look forward every day to coming in and seeing my kids. There's nothing better than just having them there. They're incredibly talented kids who all have the ability to rise.

Q: I know Teach For America asks for a two-year commitment to your school. Are you planning to stay down there after that's up?

A: I think I will definitely stay beyond my commitment. I'm technically an employee with D.C. Public Schools. When that ends at the end of this school year, I can stay at my school however long I want. I believe I will stay along for a third year.

Q: And after that?

A: As to the foreseeable future, I think I would like to stay in education, maybe move into administration. If Arne Duncan ever retires, hopefully I can be the secretary of Education.

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sun. So keep it civil.

ODESSA, Texas (AP) — A West Texas man has been charged with impersonating an officer by using sirens and flashing lights to skip to the head of the drive-thru line at a fast-food restaurant. Full Story

Sufjan Stevens, "Carrie & Lowell" (Asthmatic Kitty) Plucked strings and pulsing keyboards dominate the distinctive arrangements on Sufjan Stevens' latest album, and in the absence of a rhythm section, they serve to keep time. Full Story